INDONESIA
Capsized migrants missing
Ten people were missing after a boat carrying 20 migrant workers capsized off the coast of Sumatra, a search and rescue official said yesterday. The wooden vessel, which was bound for Malaysia, began taking on water when it was inundated by high waves on Tuesday evening. “There were 20 people on board — 10 of them were rescued, while 10 others are still missing,” local search and rescue official Leni Tadika told Metro TV.
JAPAN
Snow needed for Olympics
A lack of snow in parts of the country that are normally blanketed at this time of year is forcing ski resorts to remain closed and threatening plans to keep spectators cool at Olympic venues this summer. Olympic organizers had planned to bring in snow from Minami-uonuma, a city located on the Japan Sea, to help cool venues amid warnings of the health dangers posed by the brutal heat in and around Tokyo at the end of July, when the Games are to begin, but the plans could fall apart unless the city receives a generous amount of snow soon. At the beginning of the week, the city’s storage facility had just 15cm of snow, compared with 1.5m last year, the Mainichi Shimbun reported. “All we can do is pray to the sky,” a local official told the newspaper.
IRAQ
Demonstrations resurge
Anti-government rallies began anew on Wednesday, despite more violence across Baghdad and the country’s south this week. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Barham Saleh met US President Donald Trump for the first time since the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, but the two leaders agreed on the need for a continued US military role in Iraq.
SPAIN
Seven dead in storms
The death toll from Storm Gloria lashing the country with strong winds and heavy snow has risen to seven, while four people were missing, officials said. Gale-force winds and huge waves smashed into seafront towns, damaging many shops and restaurants, wrecking beach facilities and flooding some streets in the east of the country since Sunday. The latest victim was a man who fell into the sea in Palamos, emergency services said on Wednesday. Police also found a body in a flooded area in Valencia, a local police spokesman said. Two other deaths were recorded in Andalusia — among them a 77-year-old farmer killed after a greenhouse collapsed on him in a hailstorm, police said. Four other people are still believed to be missing.
FRANCE
Gaultier takes last bow
Legendary French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier on Wednesday plugged recycling clothes as he opened a spectacular show to mark his retirement from fashion. In a touching adieu to fashion, Gaultier said the business “has changed. There are too many clothes and too many that are never worn. Don’t throw them away, recycle them,” he said. “When I was a child my mother told me how she would turn my father’s old worn trousers into skirts. That marked me.” The provocateur, who changed pop history by putting Madonna in a conical bra, said he was hanging up his scissors after 50 years in the business.
UNITED STATES
Seattle shooting kills one
At least one person was killed and seven, including a child, were wounded on Wednesday after a dispute among a group of people escalated into a shootout near a tourist area in downtown Seattle, authorities said. Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told reporters that multiple suspects were being sought in connection with the mass shooting that took place near a McDonald’s fast food restaurant, just blocks away from the popular Pike Place Market. It was the third shooting in the area in less than two days. “This is not a random incident, there were multiple people involved,” Best said. “People pulled out guns, shots rang out, people ran in various directions.”
CANADA
One dead in snow accident
A local guide died and five French tourists were missing after their snowmobiles plunged through ice into freezing water in northern Quebec, police said on Wednesday. The group were riding near where a river exits the Saint-Jean lake, and were outside the approved area for snowmobiles, police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu said. Nine people, including the excursion guide, were on the trip when the ice broke underneath them in the dark on Tuesday evening. Police said they were alerted by two of the tourists who had rescued a third tourist from the water. “This sector was not part of a marked trail, they were off-piste,” the police spokesman said.
UNITED STATES
Land sought for homeless
California Governor Gavin Newsom, stepping up his bid to enlist federal help to combat homelessness, has urged President Donald Trump’s administration to open up surplus federal property for construction of more low-cost housing across the state. Newsom’s request came in a letter on Tuesday to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson. An HUD tally published last month put California’s homeless population at more than 151,000, up 16 percent from the year before and the highest of any state.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of